March 14, 2011—-On February 18, 2011 the winners of the African American Heritage month Poster Competition were announced. This special ceremony took place in the Ronald F. Deaton Civic Auditorium in Los Angeles.
This poster contest is held to see which students are able to create the best original two- dimensional posters that are inspired by the contest theme. This year’s theme was “from civil war to civil rights.” The African American Heritage month Poster Contest has been held every year since 2003 in Los Angeles.
The contest is open to all youth from grades K-12 in the Los Angeles County. There are six divisions and four winners in each division. The four winners consist of a first, second and third place and an honorable mention. Each of the four winners in each division received four Disneyland tickets and was able to take pictures and meet with Mayor Antonio R. Villaragosa.
Division four consisted of students from grades six to eight. Second place winner of this division, Minki Beak, from Nobel Middle School said, “I was both happy and nervous at the same time. I was nervous that my whole history class was watching, but after I went up on stage, I got over my shyness and was very proud of myself. I was even more proud because no one helped me draw my poster.”
In Minki’s case, he was very fortunate to have his whole history class along with his friends and family taken to this ceremony on behalf of Mayor Villaragoasa.
Minki went on to say, “I didn’t even know that this contest was as big as it was. My teacher from Kumon just gave me an application and told me to sign up. Even though I was very happy, I was a little disappointed that I didn’t win first place.”
There is also a poster contest for Hispanic Heritage month and Minki is very ambitious and plans to enter that one as well.
